Strategy enthusiasts everywhere are celebrating the release of Civilization VI this week, and so far everyone seems pretty satisfied with the first full release in the series since 2010. The series has always been about ultra-addictive gameplay that has you begging for just one more turn.

Sadly, though, real life is bound to interrupt, and we might at some point have to venture away from our computers or, even worse, outside. There's a compromise, though. There are actually a few excellent games quite similar to Civilization in terms of both thematics and gameplay. Here are a few fine examples.

It was announced recently that there will, in fact, be a Civilization Revolution 2, and that it will be a mobile-only release. Seeing as Civilization Revolution is a great game, and a slightly more streamlined version of the strategy juggernaut actually seems like a really great fit for mobile anyway, this is exciting news.

What’s even more exciting is that it’s every bit as much of a time-devouring black hole as the original.

The improvements made to mobile hardware over the past couple of years has Civilization Revolution 2 looking good. Almost as good as the original game did on consoles, actually. The interface has also been significantly improved and functions pretty much the same way you’d expect: tap to select a space to move a unit to, tap again to confirm movement, tap to navigate through menues, etc. An interesting addition is the End Turn button that’s actually more of a switch. To help prevent players from accidentally ending their turn prematurely, you actually have to hold the button down and drag it to the left - not unlike shutting down an iPhone or iPad, actually.

New maps, wonders, special scenarios, and technologies like Modern Warfare and Information Technology are available, as well as two new leaders (JFK and Churchill) that can be unlocked. Multiplayer, however, has been cut out entirely. It seems as though it wasn’t much of a draw on mobile, which means more time and resources for developing the campaign so it’s difficult to get upset over.

If you just can’t wait to get your hands on Civilization Revolution 2, you’re in luck! The game is out this Wednesday, July 2, and will be available for $14.99.

Civilization Revolution is a fantastic strategy game, no matter the console it's on. This speedier version of the Sid Meier powerhouse removes much of the nitty-gritty micromanaging, but it also streamlines the fun. And now 2K Games has announced that they're getting ready to release a sequel. A mobile-exclusive sequel.

Unlike the original, Civilization Revolution 2 is being designed from the ground up for mobile devices (naturally). It boasts a more touch-friendly interface, all the strategic goodness fans will no doubt expect, and multiple historical figures to act as leaders - including a few newcomers that have never been featured in the series before.

Civilization Revolution 2 will be releasing universally on the App Store at a currently-undisclosed premium price on July 2.

2K is celebrating the Chinese New year by reducing the price for 6 of its mobile titles for a limited time only. Users can now pick up Civilization Revolution, NHL 2K11, and Sid Meier's Pirates! for $1.99, 2K Drive for $0.99, NBA 2K14 for $3.99, and XCOM: Enemy Unknown for $9.99. Now go enjoy some alien eliminating, hard checking, three point shooting discounted mobile games!

2K Games have released a new update for Civilization Revolution with new features that include two new multiplayer modes that are available for in app purchase. Additionally, you can purchase new units and buildings individually or with an all in one master bundle.

Full details from the App Store:

- Multiplayer Now Available: Challenge your friends for Civ supremacy with 2 different multiplayer modes!
- New Mediterranean Units & Buildings: Brand new units and buildings for the Arabs, Egyptians, Romans and Greeks.
- New Asian Units & Buildings: Brand new units and buildings for the Chinese, Japanese, Mongols, and Indians.
- New European Units & Buildings: Brand new units and buildings for the English, French, German and Spanish.
- New Expansionist Units & Building: Brand new units and buildings for the Americans, Aztecs, Russians and Zulus
- New Wonders: 4 brand new wonders
- Civilization Master Bundle: Unlocks all new wonders, buildings and units for all countries.

Accompanied by very little fanfare, 2K Games launched the iPad version of Civilization Revolution. It's a spectacular game that seems finally fully realized thanks to the iPad's beautiful, large screen.

An interesting article over at PocketGamer this week reveals some measures Sony has been taking to combat Apple's wildly successful (but far from perfect) App Store and to make their virtual download service, the PSN, more appealing for both consumers and developers. Sony might be doing fine with consumers, as the reported top limit of 5 euros is less than the App Store imaginary limit of $9.99, so if consumers managed to stomach the outrageous price of $250 for the PSPgo, they should be pleasantly surprised with the game pricing. The question is, however, will there be any games worth buying. The upper limit of 5 euros is simply awful for developers. For any quality games that are worth buying to a consumer, the volume of sales just needed to break even is immense. This is one of the biggest problems of the App Store, but it has managed to get away with it - for now - because of the huge reach of the store - there are simply a massive amount of consumers who are willing to buy a lot of games. I can't imagine the PSPgo will sell as many units as the iPhone and iPod Touch combined, so I can't imagine how hard it will be for developers to turn a worthwhile profit. Just ask the Google Android - the entire Android store probably has seen less downloads than any of about 500 iPhone apps. To make matters worse though, Sony is taking huge control over the games, requiring a two week QA test and regulating release dates, further discouraging indie development. Sure, most people don't see the iPhone in the same light for gaming as the PSP (though I could recommend you a couple of titles that might change your mind), but with the new insanely powerful iPhone 3GS and help like this from Sony, Apple might just eat away at Sony's share of the portable gaming world.

Snood arrives in the App Store

Last night, Snood, a classic PC/Mac Bust-a-Move clone, was released by EA into the App Store. Despite some strange Facebook requirements, a quirky landscape interface (the game is played entirely in portrait view), and the fact that it's an EA port, Snood has made it to the iPhone in all its highly addictive goodness... with online multiplayer nonetheless! Best of all, there's not even a stupid cross-over promotional Pocket God pygmy in sight! A friendly warning: I lost many hours of productivity on this game back in the day. I've not spent enough time with the game (ok, basically none) to give it a recommendation, but we'll try to have an official 148apps patent-pending review up soon (or not...I didn't get that checked out with our editor, Chris. He might have some sort of strange anti-Snood bias).

App Store Fire Sale

It seems that in the App Store lately, everything must go! Developers have been slashing their prices to new lows, some even making their games free for a limited time. Rather than typing more, I thought I'd let our fancy boxes do the talking, so here are some notable price drops:

(Full disclaimer: I really don't like NFL 2010)

This week's sign of the apocalypse[caption id="attachment_15880" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Hmm, why does this look so familiar?"]

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The game Ricky is currently sitting at the number 33 spot in the App Store. The description tells me that if I like Super Mario Bros, then "surely I will like Ricky." Well Ricky, the only thing I'm surly about is your game. Ricky is a blatant Mario rip-off (ported horribly I might add). The hills have eyes, the main character is an italian plumber, and oh yeah, the icon is the 1up mushroom. Really Apple, you saw no possible copyright infringement going on. It just makes you wonder how apps like this get through while quality games like iMech and A.D.D. are held up in the approval purgatory for months.

Apps of the Week

This week was a great game week, and while I was hoping Duke Nukem 3D would hold a spot on this list, unfortunately the controls are among the worst I've seen for a big title on the iPhone. Nevertheless, a duo of great games, one new, one old, made my list for the apps of the week.

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Spider is simply a work of art. The main gameplay, spinning webs to catch and eat bugs, is very compelling, especially with fantastic touch controls, but what makes Spider truly great is the multi-faceted story. The story is a human one that rivals many novels, but it is told through subtle clues found throughout levels. Items of seemingly little consequence can fill in a crucial missing piece. To top things off, Spider comes with many secret area to levels plus a secret room that it will take a true adventurer to unlock.

Civilization RevolutionEarlier in this article, I mentioned the addictive nature of Snood, but that is nowhere as addictive as the classic turn-based empire building game Civilization. Once I start a game of Civilization, I literally am not capable of doing anything else until I've finished the game. The iPhone version is slightly watered down, making it more accessible to newcomers, and it does have some interface/control issues (no performance issues over here on my iPhone 3G), but it's still Civilization, and it's still awesome.

That's it for this edition of MMAHQ. Next week, I hope to have some super secret exclusive content for you all that I've been working (or should I say waiting) on. Enjoy your week!

Despite far from perfect controls and interface along with mediocre graphics, Civilization Revolutions comes with the best strategic gameplay as yet seen on the App Store, and for the amount of content it delivers, it's a steal at $4.99.

[/caption]SId Meier's Civilization Revolution comes to the iPhone. We teased the release of this game on Friday, and now it's here (a day early). We first saw Civilization Revolution during WWDC. 2K Games came down to San Francisco to show it off to press under a strict embargo. What we saw then was impressive, but we couldn't talk about it. This is actually the real thing. The real Civilization Revolution by the real Sid Meier. Civilization Revolution, for those unfamiliar, is a long play turn based strategy game and is the latest in a long line of games of this genre from Sid Meier. Released last year for the XBox 360 and PS3, it has now been ported, with some reduced graphics, to the iPhone. But they were very clear that it's the full game, just with iPhone optimized graphics. The controls on a game like this are always fairly complex and due to that, the controls on the iPhone are a little cramped. Good news is that you can get used to them fairly quickly. There are also some early reports of sluggish gameplay on older devices. We'll have a full review up real soon. If you try out the free lite/demo or full version, let us know what you think in the comments. Also, SlideToPlay has posted a hands on video to YouTube, take a look.

Where To? Updated - Where To? Two? One of our favorite early release apps for the iPhone was Where To? A 2.0 update has been released today to take advantage of a couple featured of OS 3.0 and in the end make the app even more useful. Now included are integrated maps that show your search results and they also update in real time on the map as you are moving. You can also email, sms, or copy results to the clipboard. Now for the bad news. This app was sold by it's original developer to FutureTap early this year. Due to this, if you purchased it before June 23rd, you can't upgrade for free. The app had to be transferred to a new developer on iTunes therefore breaking the upgrade path. For full details, check FutureTap's Upgrade page.

To celebrate this new release and to give previous purchasers a chance to upgrade cheaply, the app has been put on sale for only $0.99 until August 23rd. A great bargain for an app this useful. Take a look on their site for a video walkthrough of the app.

Red Bull X-Fighters Motocross Game from iPlay is looking pretty impressive. It's not in the app store yet but you can take a look at a gameplay video preview on YouTube. The in-game graphics look good, but we'll see if it can deliver.

Bumper Stars is running just a bazillion giveaways right now. The most important one, of course, is the one they are running with us to give away an iPhone 3GS (enter soon, the giveaway will be this week). For full details on that contest, check out the contest page.

They are also giving away a $100 iTunes gift card every week and now launched a new promo where they will give away from 25 to 100 $15 iTunes gift cards. Check it out you freebie junkies.

Someone's got a case of the Mondays. Will posted his weekly column on the app store this morning. And as usual it's a good post with a (lot of) opinions on recent happenings in the app store and the apps available. Please give it a read and leave a comment if you haven't already.

Hidden Gem: Lunarcy is an arcade, puzzle orbit simulation game. It's a little odd, but I'm digging it so far. It might be priced a little high for the current market, but only time will tell.